By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph has been honored with an award from the Missouri Division of Tourism.
Specifically, Christian Mengel with the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau has been honored. Mengel received the Film Industry Champion Award.
Mengel says this award was never on the bingo card of life, and it makes him reflect on his career since returning to St. Joseph after stints in Kansas City and Oregon.
"When I was a student at Missouri Western like trying to make student film projects and not knowing where my career would lead, I’d have never thought that something like this would be on the table,” Mengel tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “So, to think that I guess I’m in a position to move that can actually move the needle a little bit on the industry is just a really big honor, it feels like it’s naturally a really big responsibility too.”
Mengel feels he doesn't want to let filmmakers in the community down, or people that don't want to move to Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago and still work in the industry.
Mengel says it's humbling to receive the award, but it's all about the local businesses who participated and helped
“I mean we have residents in St. Joseph that opened up their homes, and they were like they can film here, and if it wasn’t for people like that these projects wouldn’t have happened,” Mengel explains. “And this would have never been in the running let alone be awarded something like that, so it really is a humbling thing.”
Mengel says looking at all the winners it really is humbling considering some of the bigger cities in the state represented
"Winners were from Kansas City, St. Louis, the Missouri Department of Travel was in there for the Missouri River Runner, so there’s big players in there,” Mengel says. “So, for us to get mentioned, it’s really cool for a community like us to get to share something like that, nothing against the major metros but it’s a nice win for the little guys.”
Mengel says especially with the way the Film Tax Credit is written to help smaller communities more than the major metro cities like Kansas City and St. Louis.
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